Gotham Alumni at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival
by Gotham on January 10, 2022 in Alumni on Screen
The Sundance Film Festival brings together the most original storytellers and the most adventurous audiences for its annual program of dramatic, documentary, and short films; New Frontier films, performances, exhibitions, and virtual reality experiences; episodic storytelling; lively filmmaker conversations and panel discussions; and dynamic music events. Since 1985, hundreds of films launched at the Festival have gained critical recognition and reached worldwide audiences eager for fresh perspectives and new voices. Congratulations to all 14 Gotham alumni films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival! They are:
Aftershock
Following the preventable deaths of their partners due to childbirth complications, two bereaved fathers galvanize activists, birth-workers and physicians to reckon with one of the most pressing American crises of our time – the U.S. maternal health crisis.
Directed and produced by Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee.
Screening in the U.S. Documentary Competition.
Gotham Alum: Aftershock is an alumnus of the 2020 Gotham Week Project Market.
All That Breathes
Against the darkening backdrop of Delhi’s apocalyptic air and escalating violence, two brothers devote their lives to protect one casualty of the turbulent times: the bird known as the Black Kite.
Directed by Shaunak Sen and produced by Shaunak Sen, Aman Mann, and Teddy Leifer.
Screening in the World Cinema Documentary Competition.
Gotham Alum: All That Breathes is an alumnus of the 2020 Gotham Week Project Market.
The Cathedral
An only child’s account of an American family’s rise and fall over two decades.
Written and directed by Ricky D’Ambrose and produced by Graham Swon.
Screening in the NEXT section.
Gotham Alum: The Cathedral is an alumnus of the 2020 Biennale College-Cinema.
The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future
Cecilia and her children travel to her aging father’s dairy farm after he has a heart attack. Back in her childhood home, Cecilia is met by her mother, a woman dead for many years, whose presence brings to life a painful past chorused by the natural world around them.
Directed by Francisca Alegría; written by Francisca Alegría, Fernanda Urrejola, and Manuela Infante; and produced by Tom Dercourt and Alejandra García.
Screening in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition.
Gotham Alum: The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future is an alumnus of the 2019 Gotham Week Project Market.
Free Chol Soo Lee
After a Korean immigrant is wrongly convicted of a 1973 San Francisco Chinatown gang murder, Asian Americans unite as never before to free Chol Soo Lee. A former street hustler becomes the symbol for a landmark movement. But once out, he self-destructs, threatening the movement’s legacy and the man himself.
Directed by Julie Ha and Eugene Yi, produced by Su Kim, Jean Tsien, Sona Jo, Julie Ha, and Eugene Yi.
Screening in the U.S. Documentary Competition.
Gotham Alum: Free Chol Soo Lee is an alumnus of the 2020 Documentary Feature Lab.
Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul
In the aftermath of a huge scandal, Trinitie Childs, the first lady of a prominent Southern Baptist megachurch, attempts to help her pastor husband, Lee-Curtis Childs, rebuild their congregation.
Written and directed by Adamma Ebo and produced by Daniel Kaluuya, Adanne Ebo, Rowan Riley, Amandla Crichlow, Jesse Burgum, and Matthew Cooper.
Screening in the Premieres section.
Gotham Alum: Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul is an alumnus of the 2019 Gotham Week Project Market.
I Didn’t See You There
Spurred by the spectacle of a circus tent that goes up outside his Oakland apartment, a disabled filmmaker launches into an unflinching meditation on freakdom, (in)visibility, and the pursuit of individual agency.
Directed by Reid Davenport and produced by Keith Wilson.
Screening in the U.S. Documentary Competition section.
Gotham Alum: I Didn’t See You There is an alumnus of the 2020 Gotham Week Project Market.
Jihad Rehab
A group of Al-Qaeda members are transferred from Guantanamo to a secretive rehabilitation center for Islamic extremists.
Directed by Meg Smaker and produced by Meg Smaker and Bryan Storkel.
Screening in the U.S. Documentary Competition section.
Gotham Alum: Jihad Rehab is an alumnus of the 2019 Documentary Feature Lab.
Leonor Will Never Die
Fiction and reality blur when Leonor, a retired filmmaker, falls into a coma after a television lands on her head, compelling her to become the action hero of her unfinished screenplay.
Written and directed by Martika Ramirez Escobar and produced by Monster Jimenez and Mario Cornejo.
Screening in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section.
Gotham Alum: Leonor Will Never Die is an alumnus of the 2018 Gotham Week Project Market.
My Old School
The astonishing true story of Scotland’s most notorious imposter. It’s 1993 and 16-year-old Brandon is the new kid in school. Soon he’s top of the class, acing exams and even taking the lead in the school musical. He’s the model pupil, until he’s unmasked…
Directed by Jono McLeod and produced by John Archer and Olivia Lichtenstein.
Screening in the Premieres section.
Gotham Alum: My Old School is an alumnus of the 2019 Gotham Week Project Market.
Nanny
Aisha is an undocumented nanny working for a privileged couple in New York City. As she prepares for the arrival of the son she left behind in Senegal, a violent supernatural presence invades her reality, threatening the American dream she is painstakingly piecing together.
Written and directed by Nikyatu Jusu and produced by Nikkia Moulterie and Daniela Taplin Lundberg.
Screening in the U.S. Dramatic Competition.
Gotham Alum: Nanny is an alumnus of the 2019 Gotham Week Project Market.
Resurrection
Margaret’s life is in order. She is capable, disciplined, and successful. Soon, her teenage daughter, who Margaret raised by herself, will be going off to a fine university, just as Margaret had intended. Everything is under control. That is, until David returns, carrying with him the horrors of Margaret’s past.
Written and directed by Andrew Semans and produced by Tory Lenosky, Alex Scharfman, Drew Houpt, Lars Knudsen, Tim Headington, and Lia Buman.
Screening in the Premieres section.
Gotham Alum: Resurrection is an alumnus of the 2015 Gotham Week Project Market.
Sirens
On the outskirts of Beirut, Lilas and Shery, co-founders and guitarists of the Middle East’s first all-female metal band, wrestle with friendship, sexuality and destruction in their pursuit of becoming thrash metal rock stars.
Written and directed by Rita Baghdadi and produced by Rita Baghdadi and Camilla Hall.
Screening in the World Cinema Documentary Competition.
Gotham Alum: Sirens is an alumnus of the 2019 Gotham Week Project Market and a New True Stories grantee.
The Territory
When a network of Brazilian farmers seizes a protected area of the Amazon rainforest, a young Indigenous leader and his mentor must fight back in defense of the land and an uncontacted group living deep within the forest.
Directed by Alex Pritz and produced by Will N. Miller, Sigrid Dyekjær, Lizzie Gillett, and Anonymous.
Screening in the World Cinema Documentary Competition.
Gotham Alum: The Territory is an alumnus of the 2019 Gotham Week Project Market and fiscally sponsored by The Gotham.